“What is a resort fee, exactly?” my friend asked, driving away from our quaint Palm Springs motel. We received a bill with a long, confounding list of taxes and fees. Too lazy to decipher each item, we paid without really knowing what we paid for. You’ve probably been there, too, so let’s explore what’s included in…

You’ve been waiting at the airport for two hours, you’ve had your Cinnabon fix, and you’re ready to board the plane. There’s just one problem: there is no plane. We’ve all been there. Flight delays are a massive headache, and Google Flights just updated with some features to help ease the pain.

Your credit score matters (especially if it’s low), but it’s not the only number that you should care about when it comes to your money. If you’re paying off debt, for example, you want to be aware of something called your debt to income ratio. It doesn’t just affect your ability to get loans; it’s also just a good…

A few years back, I finally opened up an individual retirement account, or IRA. (A small step in investing, a giant leap toward adulting.) After building my very own portfolio, I noticed something interesting. Every quarter, I found money “paid” into my account. They’re called dividends, and dividend investing is an…

It’s easier to give advice than it is to take it. You tell your friend she really needs to dump that jerk, but meanwhile, you can’t break things off with your own jerk. Most of us have been there, and that dynamic rings especially true when it comes to money. According to a recent study, we may overestimate the value…

Need a new computer? Write it off! Lunch at a fancy French restaurant? Write it off! There’s a prevailing belief that, when it comes to deductible expenses, you can “write them off” and it’s like getting them for free. But that’s not exactly true. So how much do you actually save when you write something off? We…

Google Flights is my go-to for finding cheap travel, but they haven’t always been great at predicting the best time to book, which is why I also rely on other travel planning tools, like Hopper. However, Google just released a few useful upgrades to their travel planning suite that make it even easier to find cheap…

Thanks to a post-recession economy and lagging job market, Millennials inherited the reputation of being the “boomerang generation.” We all move back home with our parents and struggle to make ends meet because we’re too busy buying avocado toast, right? It’s a broad and unfair generalization. Still, boomeranging…

“I don’t trust investing,” a friend said once. I asked her why. “Isn’t it kind of like playing the lottery?” she asked. Investing is intimidating enough for people as it is. Toss in something as unpredictable as cryptocurrency, and people give up on it altogether. It reinforces the notion that investing is like buying…

Yep, it’s time to check in with one of our last challenges of the year! In November, we invited you to reward yourself with savings, which involved saving every time you worked toward a personal goal. Were you successful?

You probably don’t want to make a habit of hiding stuff from a partner or spouse, but a little secrecy is in order when you’re trying to surprise them with a gift. When you share financial accounts, it’s easy to ruin the surprise. However, there are a few tricks to get around this problem.

By the end of the year, we should know where we stand with the massive tax reform plan being tossed around in Congress right now. As it stands, though, there’s one group that may see a huge tax hike: grad students.

Let’s say last week you caved and bought that fancy espresso machine you’ve been eyeballing. You’re happy and caffeinated, but then you see it’s $50 cheaperthis week. Bummer. The good news is, if you paid with the right card, you might be able to enjoy that price drop after all.

Most standalone streaming services like Hulu and Netflix offer free 30-day trials, which is perfect if you want to binge watch a show and bail. It’s possible to double the life of this free period, though, and as Kyle James at Rather Be Shopping writes in a new post, it’s also pretty easy.